Black Magic URSA Mini

[workingsound]

Starting a job tomorrow with the URSA Mini and went to do a quick audio and timecode test and found a couple of problems and just wondered if anyone can help or advise?

The first thing I noticed is that when the camera is switched to line level on the camera inputs the audio gain on the camera appears to be fixed and with my Zaxcom link plugged in the line up level seems to be a little on the low side on the camera.  Does anyone know of any way of disabling this fixed audio level when coming in at line level?  I saw on a previous post on JWS that it is in fact fixed, but why would this be.

When the camera has its inputs set to mic level the audio levels can be fully adjusted.  But if you switch on the -20db pad in the camera sound menu then switch the camera off and back on again the pad is automatically switched off which is rather dangerous.  I thought this could be a way of adjusting levels when coming in at line level with the camera inputs set to mic level, but if the pads automatically switch themselves off this would not be an option.

Any thoughts and advice would be appreciated.

 

 

 

[Christian Spaeth]

My friend just got his URSA mini yesterday, I'll take a look this afternoon and report back.

[Christian Spaeth]

Just confirmed that with the URSA Mini Pro (!) the level can be set manually with both mic and line level on the inputs. Not sure about the URSA Mini though, which is the one you asked about.

[workingsound]

Thanks for that Christinan.  I think that it may be the non pro that for some strange reason you can't adjust the levels when at line level.  I ended up just having to send a low level track to camera and have told the client to go to the separate sound.  I will get the camera man to chat to Black Magic and see if they can get it sorted as it seems daft!

[withintheflux]

HI Workingsound.  Actually, I've been using the Pro and have the same problem you describe. If I select line level then the manual knobs don't adjust the gain. It appears to be set at somewhere around -24. I ended up switching the URSA to mic level so that I could alter the level. I then fed MIC level from my SD 633. I don't quite understand the logic of not allowing us to change the gain when using line level. Anyone else have input?

 

Blake

[workingsound]

That also seems strange  Blake as Christian said he could adjust the level on the Mini Pro he plugged into.   Are you sure it's a Pro and not the standard Mini because I think they look the same?

 

I spoke and emailed  Black Magic yesterday asking if they can do a software update to enable the level adjustment at line level.   I'll let you know when they get back to me and what the verdict is.

Mike

[Christian Spaeth]

If I'm not mistaken the same problem occured on the URSA Pro. The URSA Mini Pro has it fixed. Nice little camera, not sure how loud it gets though.

[IronFilm]

On 11/04/2017 at 11:07 PM, workingsound said:

That also seems strange  Blake as Christian said he could adjust the level on the Mini Pro he plugged into.   Are you sure it's a Pro and not the standard Mini because I think they look the same?

They do look quite different.

A quick and easy way to tell the difference between the original Mini and the Mini Pro is look and see if it has built in ND filters or not. If none, then the original. But if it has built in ND filters then it is the Pro.